Before the beginning

...I struggle for you till I vomit, people!
Maybe someone sometime will light a candle
For the raw nerve on which I shout.
And the happy way I joke...
-Vladimir Vysotsky

When Josef Stalin died in 1953, the people that he imprisoned in GULAGs
(at least those that survived) slowly returned home. With them, they brought a
whole new musical culture--it grew from the raspy voices of tired men around
campfires at night, with guitar and samogon to help escape. The bards that
epitomized this generation--Yuriy Vizbor, Aleksandr Galich, Bulat Okudzhava--
took much of their repertoire from these songs. The music the bards made was,
perhaps, traditional--it incorporated the 'city romances', the war songs, the
classic love-lost melodies. Some also went up to the line of being dissident,
sometimes even crossing it--Galich was actively sought by the KGB.

The most remarkable of all these musicians was Vladimir Vysotsky. The best way
to describe him would perhaps be as a mix of James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Johnny
Cash. He had Dean's acting skill; Presley's fame and circumstances of death (although
we are definitely sure Vysotsky is dead); and most certainly the mystique and poetic
aura that surrounds Cash. It is difficult to listen to his songs without feeling
at least respect for the man. In any case, his music and his underground status had a profound
influence on future Russian musicians.

During this time, practically the only way to obtain Western recordings was through
something called "music on bones". This, basically, consisted of recording vinyl records
onto X-ray film, so as not to be detected as smuggling music into the country. The exact technique
used is unknown to me; however, it still baffles my mind. Records smuggled in this way
helped shape the Russian music scene of the next decades tremendously. The Beatles, for
example, are literally revered--it is customary for musicians of all trades, from techno
to metal, to name them as one of their inspirations.

From now on time will flow straight.
A step up, a step to the side--their world is behind us.
I burned their life like a pile of papers--
Only the dirty asphalt is left;
But Rock 'n' roll's dead, and I'm not yet,
Rock 'n' roll's dead, and I'm;
Those that love us watch us walk away.
Rock 'n' roll's dead, and I'm...
...not yet.
--Akvarium

Russian rock'n'roll essentially started in 1972-73, when Boris Grebenschikov and
a few friends decided to start a band. Their first notes resembled nothing if not what
came before it--guitar and folk tunes, but the members of the band knew that what they
were playing was rock. This wasn't the first Russian rock band; the others, though, quickly
faded into obscurity.

Grebenschikov is an interesting man. When he started playing in Akvarium, he was only
nineteen years old; he had only been playing guitar for 4 years when John Lennon's 60D
gave him the inspiration to start his own VIA (Vokal'no-Instrumental'nyi Ansambl',
Vocal-Instrumental Ensemble) and to write songs in Russian. Gradually, he met people, some of which
had been playing in things like Doors cover bands. Already, he was a Buddhist; this
was to follow him for the rest of his life. During the middle seventies, his band
and its various camp followers were basically a floating Russohippie commune of 10-40 people.
The late seventies marked further rearrangements of the band's musicians, and more mature sound.
Later, Akvarium was to get more and more popular; what is important, though, is that it was the
crest of the early-80s wave of rock.

Another band that rose up during the seventies was Mashina Vremeni. Mainly, they formed the
lighthearted counterpart to Akvarium's seriousness. They stayed away from things such as politics
and religion; their songs are about joy, and love, and etc. A most telling thing about them:
I saw them live, thirty years after inception. The outdoor aerodrome where they performed was
stuffed full of punks, metalheads, and various assorted music lovers. This was a music festival,
at which both Akvarium and Mashina Vremeni performed. Akvarium was generally paid attention to only
by a select group of self-important intellectuals, except when they sang their classics. Everyone
sang along to Mashina Vremeni, even though their music is as far from punk or metal as humanly
possible.

The electric light lengthens our day
And the box of matches is empty
But in the kitchen the gas burns, a blue flowerCigarettes in hand, tea on the table, this blueprint is simple
And there is nothing else, everything is inside us.

The eighties-early nineties indeed brought changes to Russia. The arrival of bands such as DDT
and Krematoriy, not to mention Kino and others like it, made Russia a vibrant rock scene.
At the same time, political turmoil was starting, with the late 80s bringing about Perestroika,
Gorbachev, and the eventual liberalization of Soviet society, followed by the USSR's collapse.
During this time, the various 'rock clubs', notably the St. Petersburg/Leningrad one,
began to appear, bringing rock firmly into the mainstream.

DDT, named at first after 'Detskiy Dom Tvorchestva'(Children's Art Center--where the band was
initially based), and then after the famous pesticide, was started by artist Yuriy Shevchuk and
four acquaintances in the summer of 1980. It quietly existed, rather penniless, in Ufa, until
the band gave a concert at the Ufa Oil Institute, where the authorities were unpleasantly surprised
at the dissident tone of their songs. The band's story is marked with growing repression and obstacles
put before them by the government, and parallel to that, growing popularity. Rodina, one of their
canonical songs, expressed perfectly the confusion and darkness that ruled Russia in '92-'93--
"Oh God, how much faith is in the hands of the government's hangmen/Don't let them once again roll
up their sleeves".Shevchuk is an
intellectual man, and a clever one--but one who knows his people very well. When he performed
at a large, several-day suburban Moscow festival in 2001, he came out on stage and said, "It looks
like we've conceived quite a few children tonight. Well, I'm glad. And remember, kids, drugs are..."
letting the audience finish the sentence. ("GOOOD!!!") DDT toured the US in the early nineties, with
not a bad turnout.

Kino was perhaps the most-remembered band of the eighties. Its leader, a young man of Koreanextraction named Viktor Tsoi, could be called the rock generation's Vysotsky. The slight
accentedness of his deep voice made his thoughtful, sometimes hopeful, sometimes desperate, sometimes
angry, lyrics all the more memorable. In the early eighties, Kino was a small, struggling group
that would disappear, emerge, only to disband once more. In '84, however, the band was resurrected.
They won many prizes; however, their popularity was fairly middling, until the late eighties.
When the band released "Gruppa krovi"(Blood group), it was an immediate success, to be followed by a
climactic appearance in the cult movie Assa. Tsoi died in a car accident in 1990; he was
completely sober, but he apparently fell asleep at the wheel from sheer exhaustion. Just like Vysotsky
in 1980, the country's young people mourned. Kino released a posthumous album of some studio cuts Tsoi
made right before his death, and promptly broke up, lacking an engine.

Many days the king was sad.
Nobody knew what the trouble was
But someone brought into the palace
A funny jester-dwarf.
The dwarf jumped around and yelled
The people laughed like crazy
The jester wouldn't stop
Suddenly, the king fell down!
--Korol' i Shut

The nineties, for Russian music, meant that the scene could finally develop fully. Most of the old
mainstays are still there; Akvarium, DDT, and Mashina Vremeni give regular concerts (although Grebenschikov
has become a bothersome old geezer, like Mick Jagger, but with intellectual pretensions). A number of
interesting new bands have sprung up, and the music no longer lacks for variety. Moscow, as opposed to
St. Petersburg, is now the epicenter of the scene, and it looks like that will remain the case for the near
future. In addition, alternative-type bands like Bi-2 and Splin have become popular, mostly due to
their youth and utter lack of any special image.

An interesting case-in-point is the rather meteoric rise (not yet fall) of Korol' i Shut (The King
and the Jester). They are punks, in both the musical and cultural senses of the word. However, in the
West they would be considered a concept band, because their music is almost 100% composed of...various
Russian fables and horror stories, usually with bad endings. Concept bands are not too popular; this
band has a multimillion following, mostly gained in the last 4 years. The musicians are still young,
and they help young artists with studio equipment and the like.

Some Characteristics

Russian rock tends to be significantly less heavy than Western. I do not know why this is; it is
obvious, however, that even the metal bands have less drive than Western ones, and the same thing with
punk. For some reason, this is only true of recordings: a live Russian punk band can easily blow one
away, so when buying Russian albums guided primarily by volume, look for live ones. The lyrics also tend
to take a much more preeminent position in the music, as opposed to the West. Often, you will find
nontrivial humor and philosophy in a song, which happens in the West maybe in some Dead Milkmen or
Radiohead music. Christianity is generally not confined to the smelly enclave of "Christian rock"--
in Russia, Orthodoxy is associated more with dissidence than conformity. The use of instruments besides the traditional drums-guitar-bass-keyboard
is more common than in the West--things like saxophones, violins, and various ethnic pieces are widespread
(Korol' i Shut has a violin). There are also more subtle differences; these are difficult to describe
without both sides being exposed to the music.

A note on piracy and the RIAA affair: In Russia, music distributors take the more logical
approach to marketing. They simply sell licensed copies for nearly the same price (maybe $4 vs. $3)
as pirated, and it is generally harder to find pirated copies for this reason.

Interesting Artists

For an 80s style metal fix, try Aria. They have managed to capture the exact moment in the
80s when the genre was at its peak and before poodle metal set in. They do it well, too--their
lyrics have more than sex and gothic fantasy.

Pilot is another band that has recently gained prominence. From their rather philosophical and
quiet first albums, they have moved to philosophical and loud metal. The vocalist's real last name is
Ch'ort, which means Devil; appropriate!

Krematoriy are a 20-year-old band that has lost none of its humor or vitality. Their lyrics are
characterized by some degree of absurdity, intellectuality, and, usually, avoidance of any sort of
current events. Highly recommended for those that can actually understand them...

5nizza(P'yatnitsa) is a recent project that touches rock only slightly. They can best be described as an
analogcLOUDDEAD fronted by Bob Marley. Actually, it's just two guys: one plays guitar and sings,
the other sings and makes funny sounds.

Aukzion is maybe like the Clash, but they take themselves far less seriously. They have their share
of tracks that sound like they're made to take drugs to. They have many smart songs, and nearly all
of them are ironic and/or humorous (Samol'yot comes to mind...)

Chizh and his various projects are excellent for fans of bluesy, drawn-out jamming. Not too much
philosophy here, but he is undeniably a very good musician, especially on guitar. Seen him live a couple of
times; very strong impression.

Of course, look at the bands listed in TAFKAH's writeup. Nearly all have something going for them.